Child's Play

William shifted his footing a little, maintaining a concentrated squat and an equally concentrated gaze. The other branch seemed really close, but then so did the last one, and it ended up being further away. He forced a lump down his throat and stared at the branch with unblinking eyes.
"I can make it," he whispered. "It's really not that far..."
He let go of the trunk and thrust himself into the air. It turned out that it was close enough, and he managed to grasp it, but he slipped. Scrambling madly at the rough bark, he grabbed hold of a smaller branch and hung in the air for a moment, dangling like a beehive. Then the branch snapped and he fell on his behind in the grass.
"Ow!" he cried, rubbing himself. He looked quickly to the side to see if any of the townspeople noticed. Though the tree was on the edge of town, it was still in view of the Vesht's main road. He let out a sigh of relief as he didn't have to deal with the embarrassment of someone asking what he was trying to do.

Luke, in his warrior form, was simply walking along thr road. He wass near a tree when he heard the sound of someone fall. Quickly he whirled around and saw a kid. He rushed to his side and knelt down. "Hey kid, you alright?"

William cried out and turned away to hide his shameful face. Knowing the townspeople that knew him, they would be asking him what he was doing climbing the tall trees and swinging around like a silly monkey. 'Of course you could have hurt yourself seriously!' The words came into his mind, but this youth did not say them.
Quickly, he jumped to his feet, wincing a little from the stinging.
"Yeah!" he said with a grin. "I'm fine! ... sir." Then he seemed paralysed as he caught sight of Luke's sword. It was like a fluorescent light for bugs, and William was the bug.

Luke nodded. "Good, glad you're okay. What were you doing up there anyways?" he asked. HE looked down at the kid to see he wasn't listening. He was looking at the sword Luke had strapped to his belt. Not seeing what harm it could do, Luke drew his sword and stuck it point down into the dirt. "You like I'm guessing."

William brought himself to nod, and he took hold of the grip with one hand. He glanced up at Luke as if it get permission to try and wield it, and he gave it a yank but the weight caught him off guard and he fell backwards again.
"Ow," he muttered. "I'm not normally clumsy, sir! Honest. But uhh... How come you can use a sword? You're not much older than me, are you?" He helped himself to his feet and lifted the sword off the ground as though it was some giant lever, offering the grip to Luke.

Luke took the sword and sheathed it again. "I doubt you are usually this clumsy. But hey, we all have clumsy days. There was this one day I couldn't even draw my sword without my hand slipping."
He smiled at Will. "You don't really need to call me sir. You're right, I'm not that much older than you. As to why I have a sword, well I guess you could say I got lucky. Dad was a blacksmith."
He held out a hand. "I'm Luke by the way."

William smiled. "Wow, a blacksmith. That's awesome!" He grabbed the hand and shook it vigorously. "My name is William but you can call me Will. I haven't seen you before though... Are you even from Trelinia?"
He took a moment to properly observe Luke's outfit.
"You're wearing the colours of Phedailin... sorta... but then it could be Jevithem... You're not a proper knight, are you?" He frowned, but the excitement still remained beneath the surface. "I guess it doesn't matter who your lord is, huh."

Luke fidgeted uncomfortably at the mention of lords. He didn't want to tell Will that he was really nobility. The kid would probably gabble all around town about it. Luke shuddered. "Well no, not exactly a proper knight per se. But you could say I'm a biased mercenary. Only work for people of one area."
He looked up at the tree Will had been climbing. "So what else you planning to do today besides trying to fall to your death?"

"I wasn't trying to fall to my death," William said with a strange expression between an insult and a gasp. "I was just... climbing." He glanced up into the tree again. "Hey! It's gone! Where did it go?"
Frantically, he scanned the surrounding grass, looking for something obviously valuable to him. There came a soft giggling and he looked up in time to see a bunch of boys run into the forest. William immediately broke into a run after them.
"Hey! Get back here with my money!" he cried, but they were too fast and had begun to split up. Accidentally, he ran into a branch jutting out and was slammed in the chest. He toppled backwards again.

Luke ran after the kid and stopped when he saw Will get hit by a branch. He didn't know if he should laugh or groan. He knelt down and looked Will in the eye. "How many more time is this gonna happen?" he asked. "And how did your money get in a tree?"

"I might have been throwing it into the air," William said innocently. "Or it might have come off my belt while I was climbing it earlier. I don't remember."
Then he jumped to his feet, again shrugging off the pain. "I have to get my money back! That's all of it in that bag! Did you see which way they went?" He began to turn on the spot, looking this way and that.

Luke rolled his eyes. "They split up, I know that much. But now there's two of us." He ruffled Will's hair. "Come on, we'll get your money back." He started walking in the direction he;d seen one of the boys head off. "Don't run, just walk. Eventually they'll think we've given up or something."

William smiled and slowed to a walk. Perhaps this fellow is nicer than he first thought.
"Thank you sir," he said. "If they think we've given up, they'll stop somewhere, won't they? Then we can speak up on them."

"That's the idea, you're a bright boy." He strode on in silence for a time. "Oh yes, you really don't have to call me 'sir'. I'm not old." Luke grinned. "Otherwise I get to call you monkey boy," he teased.

"I'll kick you if you call me monkey boy," he snapped back, but he was giggling so it must have been partly in jest.
"I think we're heading towards the fort in the woods," William said with an edge of nervousness. "I don't mean the one that they use to train archers, but the old one... I don't like it there, but that's probably where they are. They know I hate going there..."
The fort wasn't in sight yet, but the road they were on was getting slightly wider, though it was still unclean.

"It is scary!" William cried, and then he covered his mouth with his hand, not meaning to yell. "It's scary..." he repeated. "There aren't ghosts or anything, but it's... dark and big. There are dungeons and they're pitch black, and there are weird statues in the hallways."
He paused and looked either side, as though a crumbling wall would just loom out of nowhere. Alas, there were none yet. With a sigh he kicked at the dirt mid-step.
"They're such idiots..."

"Aww don't worry, we'll get them. I've been to scary places before," Luke said comfortingly. He looked through the trees and just took in the nature for a moment. So much better than those high palace walls and that garden. Sure it was big and pretty, but not real. This was huge and gorgeous and real. "Can you keep a secret Will?" he asked.

William almost tripped as he looked up in surprise, but he caught his balance and kept walking.
"A secret?" he echoed. He suddenly looked quite apprehensive, not sure whether to trust this stranger or not. He realised he was out alone in the woods and anything could happen. "Sure, I guess..."

"I'm not really a warrior," Luke said quickly. "Well, I am like this, but this isn't my true form. I can do this sort of shape changing thing. I'm really a noble." He knew this confession probably sounded so ludicrous he was sure Will would think him insane. But he put as much sincerity into his words as he could. Now he just had to wait for Will to decide whether to believe him or not.

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